Demeter & Perspehone: What the Eleusinian Mysteries can teach us today.

The Eleusinian Mysteries was the main religious festival in Greece for almost 2’000 years preceding Christianity- from c. 1600 BCE – 392 CE.

Every September in Ancient Greece,  the city of Eleusis- 15 miles (25 km) west of Athens,-hosted the Greater Mysteries of the Eleusinian rites, from Mycenaean times until about 400 AD. Preliminary rites, the Lesser Mysteries, were held at Agrae in the Spring.

That they were held in September suggests they evolved from a harvest ceremony though the later initiates saw the rites as pertaining to the soul and not barleycorn.

In many Greek states, the month beginning mid-September was called “Demetrion” after Demeter, though it was called “Boedromion” in Athens; the Greater Mysteries lasted for 10 days and began on September 14th.

The story of Demeter, the Great Mother, and her daughter Kore’s descent to the underworld is a tale of death, renewal, and rebirth. When Kore finally ascends from Hades to be reunited with her mother, she is no longer the maiden but has been transformed into Queen of the Underworld.

Persephone’s initiation may be insightful in helping modern women to journey to the underworld (unconscious) in a conscious way, and like a good shamanic journey, facilitate connection between the seen and the unseen. The descent, initiation, and ascent of Persephone is an imaginal journey that can help repair the body/mind/spirit connection. It may be viewed as a shamanic journey which traverses the lower world- the middle world- and the upper world.

I am not a scholar of the ancient mysteries nor of ancient Greece, my interest is of a symbolic, imaginal, and shamanic nature though I do research my subjects and any information given in a factual way is derived from within scholarly interpretation… the rest may have wings and that’s the fun part!